Be was born in Germany, but him, his brother and mother re located to North Carolina where she re-married another soldier, one who was verbally and physically abusive to the family, they two would later split and his mother went through a rough patch involving an addiction to crack c0caine. They struggled to make ends meat but J. Cole managed to get himself a scholarship and attend St. John’s University in New York - - he graduated but didn’t receive his diploma for many years due to unpaid fees for not returning his books.